Bad Leadership

Yet another Catholic Priest was charged with molesting a boy, and we can only wonder—how can influential leaders like this sink that low?

A Catholic priest in Pennsylvania was charged with molesting a 15-year-old boy after cops say he was caught in the act. Allegedly, Father W. Jeffrey Paulish was found with a 15-year-old boy, who was wearing no pants, in a car on the Penn State University campus last Thursday according to CNN.

If you get caught doing this, at least own up to it and accept responsibility, right?

Paulish initially told cops that he was working on his homily on campus when he met the boy, who he said was in emotional distress and needed counseling. The priest later admitted that he met the teen through the “casual encounters” section of Craigslist.

While it is easy to point the finger at Paulish, I was curious as to how the boy got into this. Apparently kids like him can just easily hook up with people like Paulish through Craigslist?

Did the boy know the man was a priest? Did he find out when he met him and then say to himself, “oh, this just got more interesting.” I wouldn’t be surprised if one day we see a social network for priests looking for “casual encounters” like, I don’t know “Priestbook” or “casualclergy” or “plenty-of-jesus-fish.com” which could at least fill that need, from an internet business perspective. (I’m joking, no worries!)

Honestly, I picture an ad on Craigslist:

Priest looking for boy.

Interested in a personal counseling session. I’ll provide the car and location. Peace be with you.

The fact that this hardly seems to be shocking news anymore just strikes me as sad yet psychologically intriguing. I bet the diocesan officials by now have a whole system geared toward handling these incidents. Maybe they even have an employee whose primary focus is to do damage control work. The title is probably something like, “legal affairs manager.”

I would hope that in priest school, they now include coursework in dealing with “sexual temptations” or at least attempt to screen out people who produce high scores on the “national attracted to underage boys aptitude exam” which, I hear is becoming the new SAT for Priest higher education. (Again, I’m joking—or am I?)

All I am saying is that one day I would like to read an article about how this kind of thing is actively being prevented by the institutions that grant these people such leadership positions. Perhaps they have to ease up on the vows of chastity—being married to the lord is great, but I would rather these leaders get out their sexual tension on an appropriate aged significant other than a 15-year-old boy found in the classified section.

I say there should be new rules for the 21st century on becoming a priest, who is with me? Or, I don’t know, at least get the College Board to weed out the shady folks with a fancy standardized test. Either way couldn’t hurt. What do you think? Share your comments! Also tweet me… @brombizzle